I wanted to share this team I built because it's kind of wild. I am currently sitting at rank ~1500 with it which I feel like is pretty solid. I tried to sprinkle in meta picks with unique techs and of course the niche nidoking and spectrier to be used in specific matchups. The basis of the team is trading offense, as well as preventing set-up teams and creatively threatening some common stall opponents.
https://pokepast.es/fd66fde562c95e32
Spectrier @ Leftovers
Ability: Grim Neigh
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Substitute
- Will-O-Wisp
- Calm Mind
- Dark Pulse
Review: Spectrier is pretty obsolete because of how generally frail it is and is typical threatened by the wildly popular mimikyu, P2, Dragapult, Zapdos, Urshifu, etc. However, when used in a support fashion like in doubles, it can actually be a pain in the butt. Most people expect you to send it out and click scarf or specs shadow ball and start piling up those grim neighs. Frankly, it kind of manipulates team preview like dracovish or regieleki. However, my spectrier is there for the sole reason of stalling out screens. When you see a grimsnarl, lapras, or dragapult paired with things like Glactrier, Moltres, Blastoise, Naganadel, Salamence, Excadril, etc, you know its time to bring ol spectrier with you. Hiding behind the sub and either using calm mind or will o wisp can easily wait out a lapras gmax or dragapult dragon darts to give the rest of the team a chance against the presumed dynamax sweeper waiting in the back. It can also easily stall out P2 even if it has foul play because of the burn. It can tank a hit from orb zapdos if its not modest, allowing you to effectively stall two turns of its max with the substitute. If you get enough calm minds up against something like fini, you can even dynamax it and take advantage of max darkness's special defense drop. I also use it to burn ladorous T, Dragonite, Mimikyu, and others. Things that immediately put you in trouble when leading spectrier are Darmanitan, Cinderace, Rillaboom, and most of all, Urshifu Dark. You must carefully look at the team preview to decide what kind of set up they are going for. It has dark pulse to hit blissey and P2, which were common picks against it in stall teams. It pairs well with the bulk up lum cinderace and weakness policy dragonite that I will review shortly.
Cinderace @ Lum Berry
Ability: Libero
Level: 50
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Bulk Up
- Pyro Ball
- Giga Impact
- Zen Headbutt
Review: This is a pretty atypical Cinderace set. It is designed to set up in front of swamperts, Hippos, and most of all: Toxapex. If you see a toxapex on your opponents team: You lead this cinderace and click bulk up. 95% of the time they will either lead the pex and click scald or switch whatever was sent out first into the pex. A plus one zen headbutt kills all the toxapex's ive ever faced. Then your opponent is left with a full HP plus 1 attack and defense cinderace with the terrain boost. Giga-impact allows you to keep zapdos under control if you're forced to max against it so the boys in the back can take care of it. The max guard option also gives you a chance to stall out opposing max turns which most Cinderace lack. The adamant nature unfortunately makes you vulnerable to other cinderace, however, we have Urshifu water and dragonite to deal with those situations.
Dragonite @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Multiscale
Level: 50
EVs: 12 HP / 252 SpA / 244 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Air Slash
- Ice Beam
- Flamethrower
- Roost
This is the star of my team. You lead dragonite and people immediately think oh boy he's gonna click dragon dance and roost away. I'll just burn him with scald or switch into Lando-T a million times with intimidate or use ferrothorn and celelesteela to wall it. This dragonite does not care about any of those threats because of the policy and special coverage. It is EV'd to outspeed dragapult at plus one, which makes it a great lead into any sort of dragapult and immediately maxing. The roost allows it to stall max turns after it's done. It is my answer to things like Rillaboom, Urshifu, Cinderace, Naganadel, and Landorous T. The only drawback is that you almost always want to max this mon because it's speed tier is pretty bad without an airstream boost and it doesn't have the bulk that most dragonites have. But if you can successfully get an airstream up as a lead and knock out a mon or two, you can stall out turns with roost later and clear the way for the rest of the team in the back.
Mimikyu @ Kee Berry
Ability: Disguise
Level: 50
EVs: 164 HP / 156 Atk / 172 Def / 4 SpD / 12 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Wood Hammer
- Drain Punch
- Swords Dance
- Shadow Sneak
Pretty typical mimikyu kee berry set here. I use it to eat turns of dynamax or clean up at the end. Wood hammer is there as an option to hit annoying stall mons like milotic and quagsire as well as give it a chance to hit fini hard. It's also the best option against P2, even if it has the steelspike option, because of drain punch. Not having play rough can be annoying at times, but the dragon coverage I have via ice moves on the rest of the team kind of mitigates that issue. It can handle both urshifu's with its coverage as well. It has 12 speed EVs to outspeed other kee berry mimikyus. You don't really wanna max this guy unless you're in a situation where something let's you get plus four attack with your disguise still up, but generally it's best to just save him for the end game after you've maxed your dragonite or cinderace.
Urshifu-Rapid-Strike @ Focus Sash
Ability: Unseen Fist
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Aqua Jet
- Surging Strikes
- Close Combat
- Counter
Self explanatory, necessary part of the trading offense team. It pretty much counters any physical attacker provided your sash is still in tact. It also provides a meat shield while giving some damage to zapdos. 95% of the time you are just clicking counter in the face of other urshifu, dracovish, rillaboom, cinderace, Etc. It can also be used as a wall breaker in certain scenarios but you rely on lum berry cinderace for most of that.
Nidoking (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sheer Force
Level: 50
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Earth Power
- Sludge Wave
- Ice Beam
- Fire Blast
Saved the best for last. No one really knows what the nidoking is there for at team preview. Sheer force scarf makes it a good lead. you can hit fini, cinderace, zapdos, dragapult, dragonite, naganadel, nihilego, and most of all, landorous T. You can even max it and get the max oozes up. If they switch into ferrothorn or celly you can turn around and hit the max flare. The scarf allows it to deal massive damage to an unsuspecting opponent and can throw a wrench in their entire set up as well become a nice set-up late game sweeper. a roosting zapdos has no prayer against scarf nidoking. Important to note that it will speed tie with the scarf fini but sometimes you have to rely on RNG to win at this game.
The team is a little unorthodox but it is battle tested, as of yesterday I am rank 1500ish on the ladder and have played a disgusting amount of games as I wait for my pharmacist license to process. I am still working on some of the calcs but it's really based on fooling your opponent at team preview and making the right trades and sacrifices. I would definitely love to hear any feedback on how to optimize it or anything as I am still relatively new at this and learning as I go.
EDIT: after cracking the top 1000 and getting into more serious games: this team doesnt check zapdos hard enough. Nidoking needs to be switched with either nihilego or maybe AV rhyperior. Not sure yet